


A christmas date

by Pearlislove



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Gen, Interspecies Romance, Kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-19 04:43:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13116273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pearlislove/pseuds/Pearlislove
Summary: Tegan takes Nyssa on a date on the planet Felice, intending to teach her about Earth Christmas traditions.





	A christmas date

**Author's Note:**

> My entry for the Classic Who secret Santa on Tumblr. I was a pinch hitter for 7th-impossible-thing, who wanted 'Nyssa and Tegan on a cute date on another planet'

"And you're sure it's perfectly safe out there?" Tegan asked, a little doubtful of The Doctor's ability to know when a planet was safe to be on or not. She didn’t want to take Nyssa out on a date, only for it to end with the both of them dying. Or almost dying, if she’d learned anything from their travels with The Doctor.   
  
"Certainly. I checked the coordinates four times. Nyssa over saw three of the checks." The Doctor smiled, leaning against the console. "Come on. On you go. Have fun. Me and Adric'll be waiting for you here in the TARDIS. Got some multi-dimensional equations for him to look at and all that."

 

Behind The Doctor, Adric did something akin to a victory dance, obviously excited to be doing complicated equations in some form or another. Tegan had never understood what it was he fancied so much about math, but she wouldn’t rob someone of their hobbies.   
  
"Right." Tegan said, trying to ignore Adric and boost her own confidence as she looked over at Nyssa. She was standing only a few steps away, but seemingly entirely caught up in trying to button her fur lined cape and oblivious to the ongoing discussion. "Ready yet Nyssa?" Tegan asked, glancing down and checking the buttons on her own cape while she was at it. In all regards, it looked quite a lot like the victorian era clothes you saw in movies and stuff, but the fabric was different and more futuristic, and Tegan thought they'd probably be warmer too.   
  
"There!" Standing up straight, Nyssa smiled triumphantly as she had finally won over the last few uncooperative buttons. As opposed to tegan's own cape, that barely touched her ankles, Nyssa's cloak went all the way down to her feet, all but dragging along the floor and making her look adorably childish. It held the deep velvet colour that Nyssa seemed to favour, and Tegan hoped it'd keep her temperature-sensitive partner as warm as it made her beautiful. Tegan could feel her heart swell as she looked at her partner, so beautiful in velvet and fur, with pale blue eyes and a rare but absolutely enchanting smile on her lips.

 

"Let's go outside!"  Nyssa exclaimed, suddenly excited. Her eyes sparkled and her smile, so stunning that Tegan was entirely lost for words to respond with, grew. Acting completely on impulse, Nyssa grabbed Tegan's hand, dragging her along as The Doctor opened the door to the constantly frozen planet of Felice, the both of them slipping outside into  the snowy landscape before the doors closed again behind them.   
  
\--   
  
"Do you like the market, Tegan?" Nyssa asked, giving Tegan another rare little smile. 

 

Tegan considered the question. It hadn’t been terribly exciting, so far. They'd been strolling around some sort of Christmas market in the frozen capitol city for about half an hour, and so far they hadn't done much more than buy a pair of furry earmuffs that Nyssa had fallen in love with. She'd looked absolutely adorable, trying them on and squealing delightfully in an unusually open display of emotion. Tegan had paid the requested money before Nyssa could take them off again, and Nyssa kept them on with a proud smile that warmed Tegan’s heart.   
  
"I think it's nice." Tegan answered, all too aware of how much of that answer was solely attributed to Nyssa's presence beside her. "You?" She asked, curious to hear what Nyssa thought. When they first spoke of the planet, Nyssa had been quite confused, admitting to not know what a winter like the once Tegan knew was like, because the weather worked differently on Traken.   
  
"I think I like it. It's odd, but not in a bad sort of way, like something The Master would do." Nyssa stopped, stamping down on the ground and squeezing some snow under the heel of her boot. "Not sure if I like this...this substance though. It's made out of water molecules, obviously, but isn't in any of its normal three states." She frowned, staring down at the snow surrounding her feet.    
  
Tegan almost laughed. Nyssa's mildly disgruntled expression was absolutely adorable, and she could tell that her partner wasn't very much liking the Christmas weather. But on the other hand, she was rocking the earmuffs. “It's called snow. It's very common when it get really cold on Earth." Tegan explained kindly, hoping to appeal to Nyssa's scientific side to make her less negative towards snow.   
  
"It's wet and cold." Nyssa replied, a small shiver running up her spine despite her ademanc not to let the weather affect her. She may be temperature sensitive, but she wasn't about to let an odd formation of water molecules defeat her. She wasn't that helpless.   
  
She was a Trakenite with an intellect that she knew, though she disliked bragging about it, was about the size of a smaller planet. She had the best manners and a refined talent for keeping her feelings and thoughts well hidden which she’d perfected as early as eight years of age. Even if she liked Tegan a lot, she felt scared to let on any weakness. Tegan didn’t suffer from the cold, and Nyssa was not about to spoil her day by mentioning that she was.   
  
"Are you cold?" Tegan asked, observing Nyssa. The signs were small and well-hidden, but from her brief time as a nanny, Tegan learnt to recognise when someone was trying to hide that they were cold. "If you are, we can try to find some hot drinks or something."    
  
"I'm not cold I am fine. The Doctor gave me .more than enough clothes to keep me warm." Nyssa insisted, pulling away from Tega. Despite her aqute awareness that said clothes were doing very little to protect her as the wet and cold caused her core temperature to plummet, she was not going to admit to being cold.

 

“Bullocks! I can see you’re cold Nyssa!” Tegan exclaimed, fighting hard not to shout as he temper flared. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. “It’s alright, you know. I don't mind if you’re cold or anything.  The weather conditions on the planets of the Traken union is almost entirely unique to that solar system.” Tegan quoted The Doctor, hoping a more logic based approach would help.

 

“Yes, well, the Traken Unite doesn’t exist anymore. So I better start adapting, shouldn’t I?” Nyssa smiles, still perfectly calm as always, but Tegan feel the tension, the hurt, that is radiating off her. It scares her. It scares Tegan to think how  _ easy  _ it is for Nyssa to pretend as though nothing even as much as touched her emotionally. Emotions, they were like oil on water for Nyssa. Never dug deep into her or touched her in any way more permanent than a fleeting thought at the back of her head. 

 

“Don’t say that, Nyssa. You don’t have to  _ adapt _ . You are perfect the way you are. Freezing and all.” Tegan approached Nyssa again, grabbing on to her trembling hands inside the wool mittens. “You know, that’s why i date you. Idiot.” She smiled, leaning in and giving Nyssa a quick kiss on the cheek. “Now, let’s get some warm drinks, yeah?”

 

“Yeah.” Nyssa agreed. Her inside felt like it was on fire, glowing just from the quick kiss Tegan had granted her. It was new, unfamiliar to Nyssa who had never thought of love or anything of the like. It hadn't been in school, or books, and as such it had not concerned her. 

 

But meeting Tegan made her long for it to concern her. Suddenly, emotions, especially those like love and happiness, were important. They mattered and Tegan mattered and Nyssa liked it so much more than she could ever have imagined that she would.

 

“Let’s go.” She said, smiling as she let Tegan wrap an arm around her shoulders, leaning against her and letting her lead them back in between the stalls of the busy market. 

 

\----

 

“How was your...uh, whatever you ordered?” Tegan asked, glancing at the steaming purple sauce Nyssa was sipping on. In between her own cold hands she held her own bowl of oddly sweet tasting green goo.

 

“Hot cocoa. And I think it’s superb. Yours?” Nyssa asked, taking another drink of her purple cocoa.

 

“Sweet. Almost too sweet, really. Could have used some orange or lemon. But at least it’s warm.” Tegan said, before bravely adding. “I hope you feel a bit warmer now?” Seeing how Nyssa had gone to extreme lengths to deny she was freezing at all, it was risky to ask if she was cold as straight on as she did but Tegan didn’t play cat and mouse. Might as well say it and be done with it.

 

“It’s better.” Nyssa takes a deep breath, and yes, it feels better. The purple cocoa warms her from the inside out and she feels a lot more comfortable than before. She had been hasty and idiotic, she could see that now, and she was glad her behaviour didn’t seem to have bothered Tegan too much. “I don’t think I’m particularly in love with snow, though. Maybe we can go to a...a dryer planet next time? Or just keep the celebration in the TARDIS.”

 

“Yeah, I don’t mind. I just wanted to show you Christmas, like it is back on Earth. Not that this is earth, but close enough I suppose” Tegan’s lips curved upwards ever so slightly. Looking straight at Nyssa, she put down her empty cup, slipping one arm around Nyssa’s waist and pulling her a little closer. She liked having the other woman close to her, feeling the heat radiating off her fur clad body as she leaned against her. “What was Christmas like, back on Traken? Did you even have it?” Tegan asked, suddenly curious. Traken was not something Nyssa mentioned often, but after her smaller outburst earlier, Tegan figured she might need to talk about it more.

 

“We didn’t have Christmas on Traken, not like this. Certainly not with any snow.” Sighing contently, Nyssa snuggled closer to Tegan, her head comfortably placed on the other woman’s chest. It made her feel safe and protected, almost like when she’d been with her father still, yet something  _ more _ . Something exciting, that she had never felt for her father.

 

It was what love felt like. Romantic love, held for one person alone, in a way she would never feel for anyone else in the entire universe.

 

“Had you any celebrations at all, on Traken?” Asked Tegan, slowly combing a hand through Nyssa’s hair. Tegan absolutely loved her girlfriend’s curly mop of hair, it’s silky texture soft against her fingers as she stroked bits of it, rearranging loose curls and putting them back into place.

 

“Yes. We had bonfire evenings and big feasts. Sometimes my dad would let me read stories to the children.” The fondness on Nyssa’s face surprised Tegan. She had never taken her for someone who was particularly fond of kids, but one look at her face told her she’d been mistaken. “I liked that.”

 

“Maybe one day you can be a mother. Have some tiny half-Trakenites of your own. They’d be as beautiful as you, I’m sure, and twice as brilliant.” Tegan laughed a little, unable to smother the sudden feeling of happiness bubbling in her chest as she imagined a little mini-Nyssa running around in a garden somewhere. Though she didn’t say it herself, Tegan wanted that. It was future that she could imagine living, and  hoped that one day she might.

 

“Maybe one day  _ we _ can be mothers, Tegan. You and me both.” Shifting away from Tegan’s chest, Nyssa sat, giving Tegan a kiss on the cheek.

 

“Us?” Tegan couldn’t help her surprise. Of course, somewhere deep within her mind, she’d always dreamed of a future with Nyssa. She’d imagined bringing her back to Earth, or settling down on a planet in a galaxy at the edge of the Universe. To have a family and a picket-fence house or just live in silence and peace to the end of their days.”Well, if you want too.” She turn to the side, catching Nyssa’s face in her hand and kissing her on the lips. “Anything for you.” She pull Nyssa down, guiding her down into lying position on the bench, with her head on Tegan’s legs. 

 

“Anything for me, are words you will most likely live to regret, Tegan.” Nyssa grinned, laughing. “You're amazing, you know that. My amazing girlfriend.” She tilted her head upwards, and Tegan understood, dutifully bending down and giving her a little kiss on the lips. It warmed her heart to have Nyssa speak so openly and affectionately of her and their relationship, even if no one was around to hear it. Normally, Nyssa was very closed, almost appearing cold on the worst of days. She was built of boxes, keeping the emotions carefully locked away in their right compartments if at all possible.

 

Tegan, on the other hand, was an explosive volcano. She spewed thoughts and feelings to her surroundings, a clear opposite to Nyssa’s shell of privacy and etiquette, and while it had been a struggle at first, Tegan and Nyssa had come to find a precarious balance that made it work. Their love was too strong for either of them to want to give up, either way.

 

Watching her girlfriend, Nyssa let out another little laughter. “I predict soon you are going to be kissing me some more.” She said softly, tapping Tegan on the nose playfully.

 

“Oh really, and why is that?” Tegan laughed, too, looking at Nyssa’s pale face with hungry eyes. She certainly didn’t need any excuses to ever want to kiss Nyssa, but if Nyssa had invented some specific reason, she didn’t mind hearing her out. It was always more fun, that way. “Is it because of almost certain death and/or Daleks?” She guessed.

 

“No.” Nyssa shook her head, still smirking. “But if you look above you, you’ll see what is essentially this planet’s equivalent to…”

 

“Mistletoe!” Tegan gasped, looking up at the balls of green plant growing in the trees above their head. Little white berries made a sharp contrast to the brown colour of the trees, and it was unmistakable what plant was growing among the branches.

 

“Yes.” Nyssa said patiently, a small smirk on her lips. “And I believe, in Earth tradition, there is one activity which one should do when under a mistletoe.” Grinning suspiciously, Nyssa removed her head from Tegan’s lap and sat up, before discreetly gliding back into Tegan’s lap with her butt.

 

“Oh, yes, there is a Christmas tradition about that. Very good Nyssa. Well, we might as well honore it. So that you may have a proper understanding of what an Earth Christmas is, and all that.” Tegan replied, her eyes lighting up in excitement and her hands wrapping around her girlfriend's waist to hold her steady as she kissed on the lips.

 

From behind a tree, The Doctor and Adric watched the lovely scene. They watched the kissing couple, grinning, simply enjoying themselves as the Christmas tale of love and kissing unfolding before their eyes. Then, they turned around and face the eader. Still smiling, they spoke.

 

“Merry Christmas, 7th-impossible-thing, and everyone else reading this!”   
  



End file.
